Do you want to be with the IN crowd? How about being IN sync with people you’re trying to impress? I know what you really want – you want to be IN the driver’s seat, don’t you? Or maybe you just like to be IN good standing with others? Well, let me tell you the best place IN which to be – the best place is IN the light. What?! What does being in the light do for me? I’m glad you asked.

Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). Follow Jesus and you will be in good shape – much better than walking IN the darkness. The apostle Paul told the Philippians, “…so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:15-16).

Walking in darkness is a bad place to be. The short-term pleasure of sin is not worth the pain of being out of our relationship with Jesus. We feel dirty, rotten, worthless, ashamed, guilty, depressed, afraid of getting caught – I could go on. But being IN the light is awesome. It is clean, honest, true, secure, bright, joyful, peaceful – I could go on. The apostle John writes, “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). IN the light = continual forgiveness, eternal life, fellowship with God and one another – it’s all good.

I love the lyrics from the song entitled IN the Light:

Tell me, what’s going on inside of me? – I despise my own behavior,
This only serves to confirm my suspicions – that I’m still a man in need of a Savior.

I wanna be in the light as You are in the light – I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my light and be my salvation – cause all I want is to be in the Light.

Read I John 1:5-2:2 and listen to In the Light.

1 John 1:5-2:2

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.